How to Survive the Apocalypse: Zombies, Cylons, Faith, and Politics at the End of the World

Eerdmans Summary

The world is going to hell. So begins How to Survive the Apocalypse, pointing to the prevalence of apocalypse – cataclysmic destruction and nightmarish end-of-the-world scenarios – in contemporary entertainment.

Robert Joustra and Alissa Wilkinson examine a number of popular stories – from the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica to the purging of innocence in Game of Thrones to the hordes of zombies in The Walking Dead – and argue that such apocalyptic stories reveal a lot about us here and now, about how we conceive of our life together, including some of our deepest tensions and anxieties.

Besides analyzing the dystopian shift in popular culture, Joustra and Wilkinson also suggest how Christians can live faithfully and with integrity in such a cultural context.

Praise for How to Survive the Apocalypse

Makoto Fujimura
— artist, speaker, writer, cultural shaper
“In our culture dominated by fear and anxiety, I am grateful for the wisdom of teachers like Robert Joustra and Alissa Wilkinson in How to Survive the Apocalypse. From Mel Brooks to Game of Thrones, from the movie Her to the board game Settlers of Catan, this book is full of deft and engaged analysis, helping all of us to move deeper into our ‘secular age’ with conviction and faith.”

Michael Wear
— founder of Public Square Strategies LLC
“Who said the apocalypse couldn’t be fun? I binge-read this book. Wilkinson and Joustra take up some of the most important questions of our day in a fresh way. They give us a guide to the cultural and political terrain we must navigate together, providing encouragement to faithful Christians to enter the public square with confidence and purpose.”

Brett McCrackenr
— film critic, author of Gray Matters and Hipster Christianity
“An exceptional piece of theologically rigorous, culturally perceptive criticism. With Charles Taylor’s monumental book A Secular Age as a guide, Joustra and Wilkinson show how narratives of dystopian apocalypse in contemporary films and television reveal deep philosophical, theological, and existential truths about today’s world. . . . Whether dissecting Mad Men or The Hunger Games, Scandal or Game of Thrones, this book’s analysis is timely, wide-ranging, and coherent, shedding light on power, politics, identity, and more in the twenty-first century.”